Alpha and Omega: An Alaskan Adventure
by DariaAlpha
Summary: This is an old story, for the first four chapters anyway. I started this at least a year ago. As a crossover with Balto, it is about twelve wolves going to Nome, Alaska, from Jasper Park, when they are bored with life in there. But they may end up in more trouble than they had expected because of Steele. This will also include Daria. (She wasn't in this when I first wrote it.)
1. Prologue

**Author's note:** No, this is not a new story. At least the first four chapters won't be new, but maybe a year old. This is the first Alpha and Omega fanfic I ever wrote, but I canceled it after only four chapters and removed it from the website to start _Paradise Lost_, which I also canceled to write _Undead Park_ only to finish that a few months ago. But I wanted to do at least one more original non-horror A&O fanfic, but since I couldn't think of any new good ideas (I won't do any more rogue-focused stories as my version of _The Great Wolf Games_ should be a one-time thing). So I thought, "Why not finish this like I did Paradise Lost?"

This may be a shock for those who are familiar with my usual stories - dark themes, violences, sex, etc. But when I wrote this, I had intended for it to a K rated story (I know, a shock as I've never posted anything less than T rated before). I intend to keep that tone (no darker than the fourth A&O movie or the first Balto movie) throughout. The first four chapters (and the first few paragraphs of the fifth) will be the year-old ones, whereas anything after that will be newly written chapters. But I don't intend to continue this until after I have finished my two zombie stories so I can focus only on it and my novelization of A&O4.

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, was located in the province of Alberta, north of Banff National Park and west of the city of Edmonton. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains. Wildlife in the park includes elk, caribou, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, grizzly bears, black bears, coyotes, beavers, Rocky Mountain pikas, hoary marmots, grey wolves, mountain lions, and wolverines.

The wolves of Jasper Park lived in three, once four, separate packs. Before the uniting of two of the packs after the now Alpha female almost lost her life, the four packs were the Northern Pack, the Southern Pack, the Eastern Pack and the Western Pack. It was the Eastern and Western Packs that united after Kate, the now Alpha female, almost died in a stampede of caribou caused by the fighting between the two packs, all because Kate refused to marry Garth, the son of the former Alpha male of the Eastern Pack. Kate had fallen in love with Humphrey, an Omega wolf in the Western Pack, and Garth had fallen in love with Lilly, an Omega wolf and sister of Kate. It was because of the near death experience of Kate that Humphrey and Lilly were allowed marry whom they wanted. Kate and Humphrey produced through healthy pups—Claudette and Stinky, two Alphas, and Runt, and Omega. Lilly was fifty days into her gestation period since mating with Garth, meaning that in twelve to twenty-five days, she would give birth to pups of her own. She was showing obvious signs of her pregnancy, more so as each day went by.

And as each day went by, Lilly's family—Kate (her older sister), Garth (her mate), Humphrey (her brother-in-law), Winston and Eve (her parents), Tony (her father-in-law) and Claudette, Stinky and Runt (her niece and nephews)—were more anxious to have more pups in their family. Kate and Humphrey were excited to be an aunt and uncle, while Lilly and Garth were obviously excited to be parents, a feeling that the rest of their family and friends already knew. And, well, their parents and Tony would have more grandpups, and the pups of Kate and Humphrey would have cousins.

The friends of Lilly and Garth who were already parents included the couples of Sweets and Salty, one of Humphrey's oldest friends, Shakey, another friend of Humphrey, and Janice, a vegetarian due to an unfortunate event in the childhood of her and her best friend Reba, who was still mateless. Claws, a Beta wolf of the former Eastern Pack, had taken Scar, one of her hunting partners and another Eastern Beta Wolf, as her mate recently, and she was pregnant with his pups. It was two years since the truce between the Eastern and Western Packs. All Alphas, the highest-ranking wolves, Betas, the mid-ranking wolves, and Omegas, the lowest ranking wolves, were equal when it came to mating. An Alpha and Omega could marry, or a Beta and an Omega could marry.

Kate and Humphrey were now the Alpha male and Alpha female of the united Eastern and Western Packs, and their oldest pup, Stinky, would become the Alpha male of the united packs when Humphrey and Kate were too old to hold the title, as they had done after the retirement of Winston and Eve and Tony.

Daria, a blind female formerly of the part of the Southern Pack that lived at Rabbit Poo Mountain, who had been driven away for being blind, and lost her mother to the Alpha male of that pack, was the only wolf who wasn't there as she had yet to find a mate. She had been born blind and her pack's alpha male hadn't accepted weakness, so he had attempted to "solve the problem" but her mother, in an act that cost her her life later, had stopped them. She had been rescued and raised by a porcupine called Floyd and lived in the Saw Tooth Cave, unaware of her mother's ghost preventing anyone but Floyd from getting near the cave. In the end, Daria had learned, from her little sister Lois, that their mother had been killed by the head wolf. And it was the head wolf who had followed Kate, Humphrey, Daria, and their then pup Runt to the forest, with two of his Alphas by his side. There, a fight had broken out with, Kate and Humphrey protecting Daria while the head wolf had followed her and Runt deeper into the forest. But he didn't get a chance to hurt Daria before her mother's ghost had taken him away to a place that those who had witnessed could only assume. Afterward, Daria had been allowed to join the Western Pack (as an Omega only due to her blindness so she wouldn't get hurt on hunts that, as an Alpha, she would've had to attend no matter what excuse she had) and her mother's spirit had left the forest, lightening it up, and earning it a new name rather than "Shadow Forest."

The Howling Rock was the mountain where wolves of the four wolf packs meet to socialize, dance, and howl under the moon, these events being called Moonlight Howls. A rule regarding Howling Rock had been that Alphas, Betas and Omegas weren't allowed to howl wolves of higher ranks. Thankfully, for the Beta wolves and Omega wolves, that had been abolished because the rule had caused so much hate between the Eastern and Western packs, to the point of almost costing Kate her life. It was ironic that she had been, in Tony's eyes, just a tool for leading to peace between the backs by being forced to marry Garth, a wolf that she hardly liked, but Lilly loved and was now the mate of. It was the howling a wolf, which to other wolves, sounded like singing, which was what attracted a female to a male or vice versa. Garth was a terrible howler until he began to fall in love with Lilly and she taught him to how properly. But Lilly loved him for his looks from the beginning and not his howl. Lilly was not a wolf who judged others by how good (or terrible) they howled.

Now, it was nearing the end of the wolves' mating season in Jasper, and the youngest generation of wolves, the one that wolves like Kate, Humphrey, Lilly and Garth, to name a few, were howling together. Most of them already had mates, but there was still a small minority of wolves who had not yet found a mate. Candy was one of them. In the past, Omega wolves would have not been allowed on the mountain proper to howl because that was where the Alphas and Betas went to howl. But that was so different than two years ago. The three ranks of wolves had free reign on the mountain now; there was nothing to stop from an Omega from howling with an Alpha or a Beta howling with an Alpha, or any combination of ranks that a wolf could think of.

At the top of the mountain was an assortment of Alphas, Betas and Omegas who had once never spoke to each other—Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, Garth, Candy, Sweets, Claws, Scar, Reba, Janice, Salty, Mooch, Shakey, Hutch and Candu—howling together. It could be said that it was a miracle that these wolves and so many others could howl together with freedom that the Omegas had not known for years upon years, generations upon generations. It was a miracle that they had not all lost their freedom or lives almost a year ago. Rogue wolves from Banff National Park, once Alpha wolves in The Eastern Pack, had kidnapped Runt, the youngest pup of Kate and Humphrey, to lure the Alpha family—Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, Garth, Winston, Tony and Eve—away from Jasper Park. But the plan failed thanks to Princess, the daughter of the Alpha male of the Banff rogue pack. Princess had not liked what her father, King, had been doing or planning, so when King had ordered her to lead half the pack to Jasper to take it over, she refused. Princess became an Alpha in Kate's and Humphrey's pack not after the Battle of Banff but after Princess was accused of planning to execute her father, and exiled from Banff.

In Jasper, Princess originally had not wanted to seek a mate, until she met Runt, an Omega wolf of the former Western Pack, whose pups she was now carrying. Princess was a good, but aggressive and assertive, wolf. Unlike her father, she was able to distinguish between right and wrong and has maternal instinct that she did not know she possessed until tasked with watching over a kidnapped Runt. Having a mate, now, seemed to take away her aggressive side ever since they married. Runt was that mate, for he had grown up now, and fallen in love with Princess. She wasn't much older than he was, maybe only by a year, so it didn't seem too wrong to her or others for her to be carrying his pups now. But when it came to wolves from enemy packs, well that was a different story entirely. Princess snarled every time the word "Banff," "Rogue," and her father's name were uttered. Princess did not want to hear those words; her father's name, King, was like the worst profanity to Princess. It stung Princess' ears worse than an angry hive of hornets to hear anything related to Banff.

But in their prolonged time of peace, over a year since the Battle of Banff, there had not been a reason to mention anything related to Banff, so Princess was generally an easy-going wolf. Even the antics of the vegetarian wolves Reba and Janice, and their squirrel friends, did not get to Princess. She actually enjoyed their antics; it made her forget more and more about her dark past. Wolves like Reba and Janice seemed to be something that the Jasper wolves needed now, while they had been shunned in the past for being vegetarians. Their odd diet, a result of being orphaned at early ages, was their only reason for being Omega wolves, unlike Lilly.

Lilly, the little sister of Kate, had been meant to be an Alpha wolf, but when her parents learned of her condition, leucism, a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals caused by a recessive allele. Unlike albinism, it's caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. She was an Omega because her father was a gray furred wolf and her mother a wolf with a goldenrod colored fur. Although Kate possessed the same hue of fur as her mother, Lilly was born with snow-white fur and purple eyes. The rest of her family all had blue eyes.

Candy and Sweets had similar puppy hoods as Reba and Janice. They even met for the same reasons. All four of these she-wolves were originally from Banff, like Hutch, but orphaned because, like Princess, their four different couples of parents had been accused of plotting to assassinate the Alpha male of the pack at that time, years before King, and murdered based on rumors that had no fact to them. Hutch lost his parents, oddly, around the same time to the well-known flooding that had plagued Banff around this time. Candy and Sweets met each other and Reba and Janice met each other (and survived on all sorts of plant material), and were subsequently met each other just before being rescued by a hunting party from Jasper that had lost track of an injured caribou. Hutch did not have a best friend as a pup, but was rescued at the same time as Candy and Sweets and Reba and Janice. They were adopted out to five different families, but reunited in their teenage years. That was when they became best friends. The rest of the wolves had all been born and raised in Jasper and knew their natural parents, unlike these unfortunate five. Princess wished that she were lucky enough to have never known her father; but she had never known her mother, who had died, supposedly, while giving birth to Princess. Princess did not buy that now, for she now knew how corrupt the wolves of Banff truly were. King had probably done something to her mother that caused her to die when she went into labor.

But Princess tried to put her dark past behind her and think about the present and future. She had a mate, Runt, whom she loved with all her heart and the new lives growing in her womb were the representation of that. If there was any day Princess was looking forward to more than any, it was the day she would give birth to her pups. She already knew they would be nothing like her father. She was a good wolf and so was her mate. Princess was on a rock pillar, howling with Runt. "Oh, Runt, I love you" was the one thing that Princess said to her mate the most ever since their marriage. It was a good change to see in a wolf who was usually so bitter and aggressive, even when she spoke. Her personality was now like that of Sweets, a wolf with a very fitting name; also in that both Princess and Sweets could lose their tempers in a second.

Unexpectedly, one wolf stopped howling. It was Kate, the Alpha female, mate of Humphrey and daughter of the former Alpha male, Winston, and the former Alpha female, Eve. Her sudden silence provoked the other wolves to stop howling as well. They all looked at her.

"Whatever is wrong, Kate?" asked Humphrey.

"I sense humans in the area," said Kate.

"What kind of humans?" It was Hutch, a Beta wolf, who asked this.

"I think it is park rangers," she said, "like the ones who shot us with darts last year and took us to Idaho. If it is, there is nothing to worry about."

"But if it is poachers," said Princess, "then there is surely something to worry about."

"I'll go check it out," Humphrey volunteered. Immediately, Lilly, Kate, Garth, Princess, Hutch and Candu volunteered to go with him. The pregnant females hung back. Their mates did not want them going into potential danger. Princess was a wolf who would fight even if she were pregnant, and Lilly was a wolf who wasn't slowed down any by her extra weight brought on by her own, but still, their mates wanted them to hang back.

Sure enough, the seven wolves found a large truck on the human road not far from The Howling Rock. It was bigger than any truck the wolves had seen before and humans were loading supplies into it.

"Those aren't park rangers," Hutch whispered. "Just humans shipping something." The truck said "Shipping Co. — Nome, Alaska" on the side of it.

"How about we see where it is going?" a voice said. It was Sweets, and Candy was with her, as was Reba and Janice. They realized it was Janice who said this, and not Sweets, when the voice continued. "I mean, we never have any vacations and getting away from Jasper for a while may be all we need."

"I've heard Alaska is a good place to go," Reba added.

"No!" Hutch barked. "Going with humans anywhere is a big mistake. You don't know what they'll do to you if they find out you all hitched a ride." He turned to the Alpha female, Kate, who was the most sensible of the wolves here. "Surely you won't let them all go to the Alaska in a truck driven by humans? Nothing good ever comes out of interacting with humans. You remember when you and Humphrey were tranquilized and shipped to a park in Idaho. The packs almost killed each other and you almost died as a result."

"Good can come out of humans," Kate said. "Only Humphrey and our pups are aware of this fact, but after we left with Runt and our pups during the battle with the Banff wolves, the human who owns the gas station across the river left us alone and even left us free dog food to eat." She paused. "Not to mention, Max, the human, even brought us back to Jasper. Good came out of spending that winter night in the gas station after the battle."

"Does that mean all humans can be good, just because he had a change of heart and the park rangers who tranquilized you had good intentions?" Candu interrupted. "I don't think so."

"We're going back to The Howling Rock, Candu and I," said Hutch, "and I expect you all to do the same, if you know what is best." The two Beta wolves left as the Beta wolf Claws came their way.

Daria had never heard Hutch talk like that to his friends before. She blinked her dull-colored eyes once or twice. "How could they act like that toward you all?" she asked. "I thought you all get along."

"Don't mind them," Claws said when her two hunting partners were out of earshot, "they just don't trust humans as much as some of us. I say get away from a while, all of you." Scar approached now. "And we'd like to come with you. We get tired of the same daily routine."

"What about the pack?" Candy asked. "Won't they need Kate and Humphrey to lead them?"

"They did fine without us when we went to Banff," said Kate, "they can do fine without us now, especially during a time of peace rather than a time of war."

"Then it is settled," Claws said. "We're going to Alaska!"


	2. Nome, Alaska

**Chapter 1:**

**Nome, Alaska**

Nome, a city in the state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea, lies within the region of the Bering Straits Native Corporation. The city of Nome claimed to be home to the world's largest gold pan, although this claim was disputed by Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. In the winter of 1925, a diphtheria epidemic raged among Alaska Natives in the Nome area. Fierce territory-wide blizzard conditions prevented delivery of a life-saving serum by airplane from Anchorage. A relay of dog sled teams was organized to deliver the serum. At first, the team of sledge dogs was originally led by an Alaskan Malamute called Steele, who after the team of dogs was lost in the Alaskan wilderness, Balto, a young wolf dog, half husky and half wolf, tracked them down. But Steele had refused to let Balto take the medicine or lead the team back to Nome and a fight ensued that resulted in Steele being thrown from a cliff.

Unfortunately, for the sled dogs, Steele had found a way to get ahead of them and marked the trees with his own claw marks, which ruined the path Balto had marked. This led to Steele returning to Nome first, where he lied about the lost sled dogs. He said that they had all died, plus the man with them, and that only he made it home. Steele is proven a liar when the team returns home with the serum for diphtheria and the dogs in the town shun him. The ill recovered from the epidemic and Balto was hailed a hero.

Now, in the winter of 1927, things were so much different than two years ago. The epidemic that had threatened the area had not returned and Steele was no longer a threat to Balto, his mate Jenna, or acknowledged by anyone in the town, human or animal. Jenna was a female Husky who had originally loved Steele, but took Balto as her mate after Steele was learned to be a corrupt liar. They had a little of six puppies, five of which had looked like their mother and one who had the appearance of her father. All but this one wolf, Aleu, were adopted out to other families.

Aleu never knew that she looked more like a wolf than a dog until she had looked at herself in a puddle of water, and thought that she needed to go live with real wolves rather than in the city. All to find his daughter, Balto encounters a fox, three wolverines and a grizzly bear, that had all mysteriously vanished after their encounters, while being guided by a raven. Balto and his daughter were reunited during the bear attack and later found themselves in the company of a wolf pack with a corrupt wolf, Niju, looking to overthrow the Alpha male of the pack. His plan was ruined when Balto fights him and Niju washed out to sea. Niju couldn't return to the pack due to having a fear of water.

Aleu had wanted to return to Nome with her father, but after all their time spent with said wolf pack, she felt that her place was with the pack as the new Alpha female of the pack. Balto had agreed and left his daughter with the wolves, and when returning to Nome, encountered the raven again. It had revealed itself to be the spirit of his late mother Aniu, who had also taken the form of the fox, wolverines and bear to guide Balto to the wolf pack.

Now, on this cold winter day, Balto and his mate Jenna were watching a truck of a moving company driving down the road past the gift store that they lived in with their human family. It said " Shipping Co. − Nome, Alaska". But it was more than just a family's belongings being shipped in it on this day.

The wolves of Jasper who snuck into the shipping truck headed to Nome, Alaska, had done so by sneaking into the truck when the door was up, and none of the humans in the area had been looking. Unexpectedly, the truck had stopped at the capital city of Alaska to have the cargo loaded on an airplane. There were no roads into Nome, Alaska. No one even knew they were on there but, well, the wolves in the truck. The sun was shining through a slit in the wall and the wolves were woken up by the sunlight. They felt the truck come to a stop. The wolves began conversing with each other in whispers.

"Have we reached Alaska yet?" Janice, one of the vegetarians, whispered.

"We must have," said Claws, "why else would the truck stop for so long?"

Their conversation did not last long. There was slamming the sound of plane engines coming to a stop. The wolves heard footsteps coming nearing the cargo hold of the plane. It was the pilots!

"Hide!" Scar whispered harshly. "Anywhere!" The wolves were out of sight in a few seconds. And just in the nick of time, too. The pilots were opening the door of the trailer up and climbing in the back. The humans began unloading the furniture and other things in the cargo hold. The last thing to go was the heavily durable bags behind everything. They were heavy, because of the wolves hiding in them, but the two humans just assumed it was a bunch of toys and not wolves. The family did have a few children, after all. It took them another fifteen minutes to have all the things moved into the house the family was moving into. The bags containing the wolves were taken into a back of the house, which had nothing behind it. The door was left open and likely had been for some time.

Kate was watching the humans through a miniscule hole in the bag she was hiding in with Sweets, who weighed a lot less than most wolves. When they were out of the room and the door that went into it was shut, Kate gave the all clear. The wolves clawed their ways out of the bags and looked to each other. They were all present−Humphrey, Kate, Lilly, Garth, Sweets, Candy, Princess, Reba, Janice, Claws and Scar−and by each wolf's respective mate, if he or she was there.

"Things are going too good for us," Garth whispered. "The back door was left open. We'll be able to get out." The twelve wolves cautiously approached the door. And what they saw was a relieving sight. It was all forest behind the house. They were in the clear, but felt there was a reason they should stay in the area, near this small town called Nome. Living just at the tree line would be close enough. They didn't know about the famous wolf dog, Balto, so they were unaware of how well respected wolves were in Nome.

"This city is so much smaller than Jasper," Reba said with wonder as they looked down at it from the hill that was at the tree line of the forest. "I can't believe we're looking at the whole city."

"Humans call these villages," said Claws, "if I remember right. But I've never seen one until now. If this is a village, that is."

"What do we do now?" Sweets asked. Candy was next to Sweets on her belly. Lilly was doing the same, only next to Kate.

"Wait until nightfall," said Kate. The others had agreed that Kate should make the decisions about what to do, being the oldest wolf present, and the Alpha female of the pack. "Then we can go explore the city. I just need to warn you all of one thing. Do not go for any trash cans. They make a lot of noise when you touch them, especially if you knock them over." Kate looked at Humphrey. "And Humphrey, don't get us in trouble over any cupcakes again." Her mate's ears drooped. Kate was referring to what happened to her and Humphrey two years ago when they were heading home from a national park in Idaho. He had told Kate that he had to get out of the camper they were in the back of, which they had hitched a ride in to get back to Jasper, to go the bathroom, but he got distracted by a cupcake. He made so much noise trying to open the package that Max, the owner of the gas station the camper had stopped at, heard them, and had chased them off with a shotgun.

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><p>Nightfall arrived three and a half hours later. All of the humans were sleeping. But the wolves from Jasper Park were coming back to Nome from the forest. There was not a wolf from Jasper Park who had ever been to None, Alaska before, so these relatively young wolves were naturally curious to explore it. They just hoped that the humans were as nice as Max, the gas station owner who left food out for Kate and Humphrey's pups. (And they also hoped verbally that Humphrey would not fall into a trap of cupcakes again!) Even though it had almost cost them their lives, and cost them a chance of getting home, all of the wolves of Jasper found it hilarious that Humphrey had forgotten everything over a dessert. Even the more serious wolves like Claws, Princess and Hutch wouldn't let their new Alpha male live it down.<p>

The wolves were all in one area, but looking around in groups of two. That was each wolf with his and her mate. Except for Candy, who was just tagging along with Sweets, whose mate was not in Nome with them. They were just exploring the city, not looking for anything to eat. That would lead to trouble. And if they wanted to eat, there were enough of them to get a caribou, if there were any in Alaska, even if the pregnant females were left out of the hunt. Three wolves, Humphrey, Hutch and Scar, seemed risky, but they could take down a caribou without a lot of trouble. A single hungry wolf could do the same thing if it was determined enough.

Candy and Sweets were sniffing about near a gift store. The lights were not on, so the best friends figured it was safe to look around it. Surely, a human wouldn't be in there without the lights on. And why would it be open at night when the entire town was asleep? But the instincts of a pregnant wolf were taking Sweets over, even if they had all been told not to go after trash cans for food. Nothing made more loud noise than a trashcan when the lid was knocked off or the can itself was knocked over. But thankfully, the trashcan that had gained Sweets' attention already had the lid knocked off. And given that she was a lightweight wolf, it was unlikely that she'd knock it over.

Sweets jumped up on the can. Perched on the edge, she stuck her muzzle into the garbage and began to eat anything that looked good to her. Sweets usually had self-control, but having pups growing in her made her as ravenous as a rogue wolf. What Sweets didn't like, she just threw on the ground. That was anything that hurt her teeth or didn't taste right, including a broken device humans called a radio. The guts of the radio were rusted and sticking out of tiny notches in the device. Sweets had bitten into it, and hurt her teeth, which had provoked her to just throw it out.

Thank goodness, it didn't make any noise, thought Candy, who was keeping watch for humans, as her friend ate.

Sweets was eating about anything she sank her teeth into. Rotten meat, that would have made a human sick but not a wolf, old bananas, rotting vegetables, any kind of food she could find.

While her friend was gorging herself on rotting food, Candy thought she heard something around the corner of the gift store. It sounded like tiny footsteps. Candy wasn't scared, but she was worried. If it wasn't what she thought it was, a small dog, then it had to be a human child. That would be much worse, because Candy knew for a fact that children were always curious of things they didn't know anything about. She knew that from pup setting for Kate and Humphrey. Claudette, Stinky and Runt had always asked her questions about being an adult wolf with responsibilities. But the footsteps were so quiet that it couldn't a child. Children wouldn't be out this late at night anyway.

"Sweets," whispered Candy, "get down off the trash can, quietly. Something's coming this way." Sweets attempted to get down quiet, but she mistimed her jump and everything came crashing down, literally. The trashcan landed on its side with a loud crashing sound and Sweets was covered in the contents.

"Get behind the dumpster!" Candy frantically said, and the two ran behind a massive container that humans called a dumpster. Just in the nick of time, too. A small dog with a snow-white mane of fur on its head and around its neck came dashing from behind the building. Its mane was white, but the rest of its body was a very dull pink-like color. It had a necklace made up of a dark violet strap and a golden locket. This dog looked familiar to Candy. It hit her a minute later. It was a female Pomeranian. Candy and Sweets breathed a low sigh of relief, but froze when the Pomeranian barked loudly.

"Who's there?" the small dog asked. The wolves looked at each other. Would it be a good idea to give themselves away to this Pomeranian or just wait for her to leave? They could smell her scent, but hopefully a dog this small had just as miniscule of a sense of smell. "I said, whose there?" she asked again.

"Will anything bad come out having conversation with such a small, cute dog?" asked Sweets.

"I don't think so," Candy whispered back, "but clean yourself up first. I'll go out there, slowly. If I move slowly, I won't seem as a threat to her."

Sweets began to paw, shake and lick the garbage off her body as Candy slipped around the corner of the dumpster. The Pomeranian saw Candy and gasped. "A wolf!"

"Don't worry," Candy whispered. "I won't hurt you. I only eat caribou and moose," she added.

The small dog was still nervous, obviously, for Candy was so much bigger than she was. And the revealing of Sweets, now garbage free, a few minutes later, didn't calm her any. "Neither of us will hurt you," Sweets said kindly. "It wouldn't be fair for even a wolf pup to attack someone your size." She stopped, then added, "No offense meant by that statement..."

"Well it is good to know that you won't hurt me," she said. "But how many of you are there? I've seen so many wolves exploring the streets in the past ten minutes.

"There are twelve of us," said Candy. "Three males and eight females, all of which are pregnant except for two: Kate and I."

"My name is Dixie," she said, "but what are twelve wolves doing roaming the streets of Nome in the dead of night?" the Pomeranian asked.

"We arrived here from Jasper Park, Canada, early this morning," Sweets explained.

"You came all the way from Southern Canada to here?" Dixie said in disbelief. "Won't your pack be worried about you twelve?"

"Probably," she continued, "but they know us too well. We're always going on adventures." Candy went back to her explanation. "Well, we've never been to Alaska before, so when that moving truck was in Jasper, we hopped aboard and hid in the sacks in the truck. The two humans driving it put us in the back room of that house over there and thankfully, the back door had been left open. It gave for an easy escape into the forest until nightfall."

At this moment, the other nine wolves came from around the different buildings, snarling slowly. Dixie let out a scream and almost fainted. The wolves didn't know that Dixie wasn't a threat to them.

"No!" Sweets cried. "We were talking with Dixie, not threatening her!"

The wolves immediately stood down. Already, Candy was fanning Dixie with her fluffy tail, attempting to wake her up. It worked and she explained the misunderstanding too everyone.

Dixie opened her mouth to say something, but lights in a nearby house turned on. The hackles of the wolves stood up in surprise.

"What do we do?" Janice whispered. "Humans must have heard the noise coming from here."

"You go dumpster diving," Dixie said.

"What?" the twelve wolves said at once.

"Get in the dumpster and shut one of the lids," the Pomeranian explained. "They wouldn't think to look for twelve wolves, or any animal, in a dumpster. I'll hide behind it and let you all know when the cost is clear."

And so the males and Candy helped the pregnant females into the dumpster, and then helped themselves in as well. Before diving into the dumpster himself, Scar slammed one of the lids down; the one that they were hiding under together. The odor of the trash was hard to bear, but that was better than being seen by humans, the wolves thought.

A man came out of his house with a small handgun and a flashlight. He went into the alleyway and saw nothing as he shined the light around. A large dog came out of the house seconds later, but couldn't smell the wolves or Dixie over the stronger scent of the garbage.

"Must have been a raccoon," the man said. "Let's get back to bed. We have to get up in early in the morning." And then the man and his dog went back into the house. Dixie waited for the lights to go off before she came out from behind the dumpster.

Dixie pawed the side of the metal container and said, "The cost is clear. You can all come out."

It was harder for the wolves to get out of the dumpster than it was for them to get in, but they did it without any injury or noise.

"Thank you, er..." Kate didn't know the Pomeranian's name.

"Dixie," she introduced herself.

"Thank you, Dixie," Kate continued. "We really appreciate you covering for us. But do you really think that we can be seen by the humans and not be chased off?"

"Possibly," the small dog said. "There is a famous wolf dog called Balto who lives in the town as a family pet. I'll talk to him and see if he can think of a plan to keep you from getting in trouble every time a human sees you."

"How is he famous?" asked Lilly.

"Two years ago, there was an epidemic of a deadly disease that affected humans in Nome and the area around it," Dixie explained. "If it wasn't for Balto finding the sled team of dogs that had been trusted with bringing the medicine to Nome after they were lost, a good number of the population would have died."

"Anything else we should know?" Claws asked.

"Yes. Watch out for an Alaskan malamute called Steele. He is a stray dog who had been the leader of the sled dogs trusted with getting in the medicine, but when Balto arrived to lead them home, he refused to let Balto have any part in the journey. They fought and Steele was thrown off the mountainside. He even ruined the trail Balto had marked to find his way home. He is not a dog you want to get hooked up with."

"Thank you for the warning, Dixie," Humphrey said and then the small dog ran off. She would talk to Balto in the morning.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> I forgot that I was re-posting this or I would've done this earlier.


	3. New Home for Jasper Wolves

**Chapter 2:**

**New Home for the Jasper Wolves**

Balto lived in a gift store owned by his family. Now, his mate Jenna was watching him as he spoke with Dixie. It was the morning after Dixie had spoke with the twelve wolves from Jasper Park.

"So," Balto said, "you say that there are twelve wolves from Jasper National Park who came all the way to Nome and you had a conversation with them last night?"

"Yes," said Dixie. "They're names were Humphrey, Kate, Lilly, Garth, Daria, Sweets, Candy, Princess, Reba, Janice, Claws and Scar. I don't mean to sound rude, seeing as you're part wolf, but I never knew that entirely wild wolves could be so nice to a domesticated dog like me. Candy and Sweets didn't even want to eat me."

"Not all wolves are cruel enough to want to eat a small Pomeranian like you, Dixie," Balto said, as he was part wolf himself. "But what point are you trying to make about these twelve?"

"I need you to do something to show the humans that they are not so bad after all," the Pomeranian explained. "There is something about them that seems special. Aside from any good feelings I have about them, after the short conversation we had, I don't want to see them living out in the wild. You, Balto, know how scarce food is in the Alaskan wilderness."

Balto sighed. "Show me to these wolves, if you can find them," he said, "and then I'll see if I can do anything for them. I can't help wolves...er, anyone...if I haven't met them first."

Dixie led Balto and Jenna to the place in the woods the wolves had told her about last night, where they were living during the day. It surprised Balto and Jenna to see that Dixie had not made up the wolves or had seen them in a dream. There were actually twelve wolves, some of them whom looked familiar because park rangers in Jasper had photographed some of the wolves for banners promoting Jasper Park that were common in Nome.

"Well, well," said Balto, much to the surprise of the twelve wolves, "looks like Dixie wasn't dreaming when she said she saw twelve wolves, from Jasper Park no less." He explained how he and Jenna were familiar with some of them from that billboard featuring them.

"Why exactly are you here?" asked Jenna.

"We just wanted to get away from Jasper for a while," explained Kate, "even if Humphrey..." she motioned toward her mate. "...and I are the Alpha males of our pack, they have gotten along perfectly fine without us twice, maybe three times, in the past. We have experienced a time of peace for over a year now, so we all figured there was nothing to worry about if we took a little, for lack of a better term, vacation."

"I have never heard of pack leaders willing to leave their pack along," Balto said, the shock in his voice very noticeable. "Let alone going so far from where their pack lived!" he added.

Kate wasn't sure as to how else they could explain their being here, so a very heavy with pups Lilly took over. "So can you help us became a normal sight in Nome?" she asked. "In a place we are new to, us females who are expecting pups need a warmer place to stay during the winter." She sat down on the ground and laid her chin on Garth's tail, which he had placed there for that reason. "That includes Sweets, Princess, Reba, Janice, Claws and I."

"But if you are all expecting pups, why is it only two of you, I'm assuming, has your mate here," Jenna asked with concern, "why would you dare coming out here without the father of your pups?"

Claws took over. "Well, of all our mates, only four of them were present during the meeting about it and only the present males wanted to come with us," she said. "We could have asked Salty, Shakey and Mooch to come with us, but the time it would have taken us to find them would have meant we missed our chance to come here. But we'll be fine without them. The mates of Reba, Janice and Sweets will just have a surprise when we get back to Jasper."

"If it helps the females who are expecting pups," Balto said, "I will see what can be done. But I must let you all know now that my plan involves showing you all to the humans of Nome, and you all letting them know of your condition. Only then will they allow so many 'wild' wolves in their town and in their buildings. It has happened before, so just wait here. I'll be back in a few minutes."

And so the wolves of Jasper just waited. Lilly had gotten bored with waiting and rolled over on her back, with Candy and Sweets, to watch the clouds, and point out the shapes they saw in the clouds. Reba and Janice eventually joined in, while the others just walked about what they had seen in Alaska and how nice everyone was, so far.

"What do you see in that one, Lilly?" Janice asked, pointing her paw at a cloud just over the she-wolves.

"I'd say a turtle," Lilly said. The others burst out laughing, even those who weren't watching the clouds. "What?" Lilly asked innocently, looking over her growing stomach.

"You, of all wolves, saw a turtle in a cloud?" Kate laughed. "When you are the one who imitates turtles perfectly. That is great, Lilly!" They all laughed again, and then Lilly found it just as humorous. She had not thought about her tendency to imitate turtles, her favorite animal (other than wolves, of course).

"What has gotten into Balto and Jenna?" a voice called from down the hill. Humphrey and Garth saw Balto and Jenna darting up the hill, with several kind-looking humans chasing after them. Of course, the wolf dog and Husky were keeping ahead of them. Balto and Jenna reached the tree line and the humans whom they lived with not much later.

Balto and Jenna just wagged their tails with innocence as their family stared with awe at the twelve wolves. They were most shocked by Lilly, Sweets, Princess, Reba, Janice and Claws, the pregnant females. What owners of two dogs would have expected to find so many wolves without a pack living so close to such a small town? Not this family. That was for sure.

"Oh, Balto," the father said, "you are always the one to find such things." He scratched Balto behind the ear. Jenna trotted over to the wolves and assured them they had nothing to worry about when the father made his way toward them.

The father went to Lilly, who had gained his attention over any other wolf because of her snow-white fur and her beautiful mane. In Jasper, Lilly was an Omega wolf who had always attracted the attention of even Alpha males of the once enemy Eastern Pack with her beauty. Her being so different from her parents, Winston and Eve, due to her condition called Leucism, a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals caused by a recessive allele. Unlike albinism, it's caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. Her being so different from so many other wolves was what males found beautiful about Lilly. And, according to Garth, she had the most beautiful eyes of any female wolf. No other wolf had purple eyes like Lilly. Lilly was the envy of many other she-wolves and now Garth was the target of jealousy from many mateless males who had loved Lilly.

The father gently rubbed Lilly's belly, for he could tell by the size of it that she had pups in there, which provoked Lilly to giggle and blush. To the wolves, it sounded like giggling, but to the humans it sounded like a sound that dogs made when they were patted on the belly by their owners, a kind of soft growling that was very similar to the purring of cats. Lilly had her eyes closed as she enjoyed the attention.

The town sheriff had been in the gift store when Balto and Jenna took off, so he had come with their owners. The father turned to him now. "Do you think we have anywhere these wolves can stay in Nome until they have their pups and those are old enough to walk around?" he asked. He took a flier out of his winter coat's pocket and showed it to the sheriff. It was the flier promoting Jasper National Park with a snapshot of Kate, Humphrey and Lilly. "These are wolves from this park," he added.

"Possibly..." he said, but the mother cut them off.

"Maybe we could have them live in the back area of our store?" she asked. "I mean, no one ever goes back there except for us and Rosie, and even then, I don't think there would be a problem. These wolves are the kindest wolves we've ever seen since Balto." She scratched Claws behind the ear and the wolf started to wag her tail happily. "See how they let us pet them and scratch their ears? Have you ever seen wild wolves so docile before, sheriff?"

"No," he said, "I haven't. I guess they can live with you all in your storage...I don't see them being any trouble.

"Rosie will be so happy to have so many more dogs, well wolves, living with us," the mother said. "Especially since it seems that the majority of the females have puppies on the way."

* * *

><p>The mother was entirely right. Rosie, the daughter of the family, and one of the many people in the town who had been afflicted with diphtheria (an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, andor nasal cavity) two years, was excited to find out about the twelve wolves basically living in their backyard.

"Now Balto and Jenna will have more friends!" Rosie had said when they brought the twelve Jasper wolves in. "So many more!" when she had been told that so many of them were near giving birth to puppies.

Like her father, Rosie had an immediately attraction to Lilly because of her snow-white fur and purple eyes. That was unique and rare for a Gray wolf like Lilly to have white fur. All of the expecting she-wolves had been given very soft, feather-stuffed pillows to sleep on, and cotton blankets to sleep under on cold nights. It made Kate and Candy wish they were pregnant now, seeing how their friends were being treated.

Lilly could get used to this treatment and so could the rest. Rosie was doing the same thing her father had done when her parents found the wolves. She was rubbing Lilly's belly, something that she was beginning to enjoy more and more. Until now, she and the other pregnant females had thought being a pet could be the worst thing that could happen to a wild animal, but they did not feel that way now. If there was such a thing as heaven on Earth, it was this! Lilly thought as she lay on her back on a pillow that matched the color of her fur. Like a Snowshoe Hare or a Snowy Owl in wintertime, Lilly almost blended into the pillow. Lilly had never liked it when Garth poked his wet nose into her belly but this felt so much better. It made more sense to her now why domesticated dogs enjoyed having their bellies rubbed now.

Kate had to laugh at how her sister was acting. It wasn't like Lilly, who usually despised being touched by anyone in such an almost invasive way. But Kate had to admit it did look like something that any wolf would enjoy. As she watched Lilly and the little girl Rosie, Kate was thinking about how she would be an aunt in about a week. Kate felt that Lilly was due to give birth in about a week, yes. Kate could tell by how big Lilly's belly was now. The same could be said about Princess, Claws, Sweets, Reba and Janice, as well. Kate had never seen them so big before. She wondered if some of it had to do with their strange eating habits that came with pregnancy. Candy had told her about how Sweets had started eating about everything that was edible out of a trashcan before the wolves had met the Pomeranian called Dixie.

Kate heard Lilly say, "Oh, this is great! I don't have to do anything and I'm treated like a queen!" To Rosie, it sounded like a mix of a happy growl and a whine. Obviously, the humans only heard barks, growls, whines and similar noises when the wolves and other dogs spoke to each other. The animals could understand the humans, but the humans couldn't understand the animals.

Even the usually fowl-tempered wolves Princess and Claws enjoyed the occasional belly rub. It made them all sleep and Sweets had already fallen asleep by the time Rosie's parents brought the wolves several bowls of the dog food that Balto loved so much. The smell of real food was enough to wake the wolves up and to get Lilly to not want her belly rubbed anymore. The wolves realized how hungry they were for fresh meat and not that garbage in cans outside the homes.

Lilly and the other wolves like her gobbled down the food from the largest of the food bowls in the room and asked for, yes, five more before they were full! The she-wolves went back to their pillows to not get their bellies rubbed again but to sleep. Their treatment made them all lethargic even if it was still morning.

A little nap never hurt anyone, thought Scar, as he looked at his mate, who was this time on her back. Claws looked so beautiful to him when she slept. At least there were a few males here to help the females with their puppies in about a week, and now humans as well.

Balto and Jenna came into the back room where the wolves lived at this moment. They had not expected to see the expecting wolves sleeping after their meals. "Now is the time that the most humans come into the store," said Jenna, "if those of whom are still awake want to come into the front and watch all the customers like we do. Rosie's father says that having dogs in the front helps business."

Kate, Humphrey, Garth, Candy and Scar thought it would be interesting to watch humans and not be watched by humans for once, and so they went back into the store proper with Balto and Jenna.

"Balto wasn't joking," Kate said to the others. "I've never seen so many humans in one place before. They must have everything here that humans would want to have."

"Well," said Jenna, "Rosie's parents do sell about everything here...toys, clothes, food, water, knives, guns, tools...you name it, they probably have it somewhere."

"And if they don't, they'll find a way to get it to you," Balto added. "Too bad the only way to get things here is by plane or train, seeing as there are no roads here to drive things in on trucks."

"We found that out when we came here," said Sweets. "We'd gotten on a truck in a moving family's cargo, in several sacks, and we were loaded onto an airplane halfway into the journey."

"It was the bumpiest ride I'd ever been on," said Garth. "I think Lilly might have gotten sick on the flight and threw up. I remember stepping in something..." Garth felt sick just thinking about it being Lilly's vomit that he might

"That'll give the family a great surprise," Scar said sarcastically and all the wolves and Jenna laughed at this. "Can't imagine their kid when he or she finds out a wolf got sick around his or her toys!"

Something slipped through the doggy door on the front door of the gift store. It a massive jet-black dog with a white underside and no collar. There was something about him that made the Jasper wolves' hackles stand on edge. Scar snarled loudly at this dog and that attracted the attention of the humans.

"What's he snarling about?" one of the customers asked. "Put a muzzle on him!"

"Scar, what's wrong?" the father asked. He looked at the door. He saw Steele. "Oh...it's Steele. I've told that mutt he's not allowed in my store anymore. It's no wonder Scar is snarling so loud." Rosie's father called him Scar because of injuries on the wolf's face, which, ironically, was where his real name came from.

"Someone get him out of here!" Rosie's mother shouted. "He'll drive away business with his behavior."

The customer who had asked why Scar was snarling was the one who took Steele out of the store. The humans went back to business like nothing had happened, but the wolves didn't.

"Who on Earth was that?" Scar whispered.

"That is Steele," Balto said with disgust. "Steer clear of him all you can. Not a dog in this world worse than him."

You don't know King then, thought Kate.

Steele heard what Balto said about him outside and growled. "So, I'm the worst wolf in the world?" he said to himself. "I'll get my revenge on you yet, Balto, you fool. And that she-wolf, Candy, I believe that's her name, will help me...I can woo any female!" He laughed and then ran off.


	4. Candy meets Steele

**Chapter 3:**

**Candy Meets Steele**

The same day the twelve wolves from Jasper were allowed to live in the gift store owned by Rosie's parents, while her friends, the few who were still awake, were watching the business, Candy had gotten bored with that and went outside to explore the city more now that she and her friends could do so without being shot at by humans. That was due to the sheriff making it known about the wolves and the humans had no problem with such tame wolves.

Ever since the stories Kate and Humphrey had told about their time spent in the gas station two Christmases ago, Candy had interested in seeing the inside of a gas station for some reason. And she had a chance now, for there was a single gas station in Nome and it wasn't far from the gift store the wolves called home now. She would be back home before she was missed by her friends.

When she got into the gas station, it was not what Candy had expected to see, having never been in one before. On the shelves, there were things like non-perishable snacks and cigarettes. There was water on the floor by a freezer and a sign warning that the floor was wet. There were only three humans in the gas station, all at the cash registers.

Candy trotted over to the cash register on the far right. She did not run because that could have frightened the cashier. The woman looked down at Candy, slightly confused. What would a wolf want out of a gas station? Not even the dogs in the town ever came in here, and they were allowed to run free. Candy rubbed her belly with her right paw and licked her lips. Maybe that would give the cashier enough information as to what she wanted.

The cashier sighed and asked the others if the manager wouldn't care if some food "just vanished on its own". The others didn't care and so she went into the freezer and brought out the largest steak she could find. Of course, the cashier defrosted it so Candy could actually eat it, before she gave it to the wolf.

Candy attacked the steak immediately. This was about as ravenous as she'd ever been. She was so caught in eating the steak, which was delicious to her, that Candy did not notice the Alaskan malamute come into the gas station. The cashiers were watching him carefully, for they knew it was Steele. No one in this town liked Steele for what he did to Balto and the other sled dogs a few years ago. If he was a human, that dog would in jail for what he did. In Nome, there wasn't a place to put dogs down. If there were, Steele would have been dead then.

Steele was taking things slowly. Not only did he not know how the cashiers would react to his presence, but he didn't know how the she-wolf would react to him. Aside from being startled by him, which could end badly, Steele knew that Balto and Jenna had already warned those twelve or so wolves from...what is it, Jasper? Yes, from Jasper, thought Steele, about him. But Steele was still a smart dog. He knew how to lie his way out of any situation, but that sometimes did backfire on him. Lying was why he was a stray treated like an exile. But it there was one thing Steele never failed at, it was wooing females into believing everything he said. And this female, Candy, even though a wolf and not a domesticated dog, seemed easy to Steele. She doesn't seem all that bright, either, he thought.

Steele stopped about six inches from Candy and cleared his throat before speaking. "Excuse me, miss," he said, trying to sound as polite as possible, which was almost impossible for Steele to do, with his deep voice. And, as expected, Candy was startled by him and spun around. She snarled and almost put her claws into Steele's shoulder.

"What do you want, you stray?" Candy asked in a rude, insulting tone that was intentional. "Can't you see I'm eating and I don't need you here. I'd like to keep this steak in my stomach, if you don't mind...I don't even care what your name is. If you're who I think you are, then you can just leave now. I know all about you from Balto and Jenna."

"Do you, now?" This time, Steele's voice had a more threatening inflection to it. "How do you know they're not telling you lies?"

"You seem like the kind of animal that would do something like what they told me you did," she retorted. "Now leave or this will be you." Candy tore into the steak with her razor sharp teeth and took a good sized chunk out, which she swallowed whole. "I have no problem with cannibalizing someone like you, but I'm afraid that you'd give me indigestion."

Steele moved uncomfortably close to Candy. She'd back way, but he'd just keep moving closer. "No need to get like that, now, Candy..."

"How do you know my name?"

"That doesn't matter, she-wolf. Just listen. I don't need you to talk so much." Candy was offended by this. She wanted to rake his eyes out so much. "Anything that the townspeople or the other dogs say about me is far from the truth. Do you really think that every one of them was there to see what happened? No. Only Balto and five, maybe six, other sled dogs saw the incident. I don't mean to offend you, but you're making a mistake believing any bad things you hear about me. So do you trust me?"

Candy sat down on the floor, hard, angrily. She clawed the wood as she thought. Everything Steele was saying, even if it was somewhat rudely, did sound convincing. Almost true. Well...she thought. "I believe you," she said. "But if I find out that you are lying, I will rip out your eyes and feed them to the vultures." Candy got that threat from Eve, mother of Kate and Lilly.

Steele backed off slightly. That remark truly scared him. "Good," he said, trying to hide his fear of Candy, "now I need to show you something under the store where you and your friends are living."

* * *

><p>There was a crawlspace under the store the Jasper wolves called the area under the back room, the wolves' sleeping quarters, there was a pile of broken glass, probably from bottles. One could only speculate as to how they made it here, under this building. When the sun shined on this glass, it produced an effect similar to what was called the Northern Lights. It wasn't happening now, for the sun wasn't shining in this direction. There was something else that caught Candy's eye. There was a hole in the floor, one that she and the others had not noticed from above. Candy and Steele could hear the other wolves talking through the hole in the floor. Candy, however, paid no attention to what they were saying. She assumed he'd brought her here to see the glass. It wasn't very exciting.<p>

"This is all you wanted to show me?" Candy said, her voice tainted by boredom already. "I've seen more exciting things with my eyes closed." She turned to walk away.

Steele blocked her both. "Just give the sun a couple minutes," he said, "then you will see what this glass can actually do."

"Fine." And then Candy threw herself down on her butt for the second time now. This Malamute bored her to no end. She could believe he wasn't a dangerous dog. Maybe not in the way he is accused of, but dangerously boring, maybe! His voice bored her, the things he said bored her, and even every single thing he did bored her! No wonder Balto never said anything about Steele having a mate. He probably bored them before they even got to know each other.

Ten minutes went by and Candy was almost asleep when the sun shone on the glass. It produced an effect that Candy was very familiar with. Northern lights. But it was something that she had seen so many times in all the winters she has been on Earth that this did not excite her anymore than Steele.

"This is about as boring as you are," she said aloud. And it was intentional, too. "Do you have something that is actually worth my time, to show me? I'd rather be back in the gas station with my steak, whether you care or not. I trust you, Steele, but you need to show me something I haven't seen in my life already. Northern lights are nothing new to me. I've seen them since I was still drinking my mother's milk as a puppy."

She's a hard one to find something that interests her, thought Steele. "Have you ever been in an airplane?"

"What?" Candy gasped. "No. I haven't, other than when I was shipped here."

"Then follow me," he said. Steele got her to trust him, but he may just end up losing her already.

* * *

><p>There was an airplane in a hanger to the north of the small town. It had Balto's name on the side of it, with some other words Candy couldn't make out too well.<p>

"This is the plane that crashed about a year ago and Balto went to save the pilot and a goose called Boris," Steele explained. "But it has been damaged so many times since then that it had to be sent here until humans can find a museum to send it to."

"So I can get in it?" Candy asked.

"Yes. Humans almost never come up here anymore."

Candy somehow found her way into the cockpit of the airplane. She had her paws on the steering wheel, even though she knew it wouldn't fly. Steele had told her on the way that the gasoline had been drained out of it. Steele joined her, only standing on the right wing of the plane rather than in the cockpit. There wasn't room for two wolves...er...dogs in it. Yes, there was a back seat, but Steele had reasons Candy didn't need to know about for not getting in it.

Candy's enjoyment of the airplane would not last long. Footsteps suddenly came from outside the warehouse. A man with a shotgun came in the steel building. And it was not the sight of the wild wolf, Candy, that angered him. It was the domesticated one, Steele, that angered him.

He roared Steele's name and threatened to shoot the Malamute if he ever caught him here again. The man chased Steele out of the warehouse and came back to get Candy out of the airplane.

"Don't you ever listen to him," he said to Candy. "Steele will only get you into trouble and danger. He is no good. Now run on home while I make sure Steele can't get in here again."


End file.
